airway

IPA/ˈeəweɪ/
KK[ˈɛrwˌe]IPA/ˈerweɪ/

airway — noun

  • airwaysingular
  • airwaysplural

1. the tube-like channel running from your nose down through the throat, allowing b

1.nounB2
Definition

the tube-like channel running from your nose down through the throat, allowing breath to travel in and back from your lungs

Example

The paramedic tilted Asher's chin up to keep his airway open.

collocation: keep someone's airway open

A small piece of carrot blocked the toddler's airway during dinner.

collocation: block / clear the airway

Common collocations
  • open the airway
  • clear the airway
  • block the airway
  • obstructed airway
  • secure the airway
Synonyms
  • respiratory tract

    more technical; covers the whole system from nose to lungs

  • windpipe

    informal for the trachea; only the lower part of the airway

Usage Note

Frequently appears in medical and first-aid contexts with verbs like open, clear, block, secure, and protect.

Common Mistakes

He breathes through his airways nose.
He breathes through his nose and into his airway.
airway names the internal passage, not the nostril itself.

2. a fixed path in the sky that planes are told to follow when flying between two p

2.nounC1
Definition

a fixed path in the sky that planes are told to follow when flying between two places, set by air traffic controllers

Example

The pilot stayed on the assigned airway until reaching Frankfurt.

collocation: on / off the airway

A summer storm forced the captain to leave the main airway over the Atlantic.

Common collocations
  • fly along an airway
  • leave the airway
  • assigned airway
  • international airway
Synonyms
  • flight path

    more general; covers any aircraft route, including landings

  • air lane

    near-synonym; both name a fixed corridor for planes

  • skyway

    less technical; mostly journalistic

Usage Note

Subject is usually a plane, pilot, flight, or controller. Distinguish from sense 3 (an airline company): an airway here is a path in the sky, not a business.

3. a company whose business is flying passengers between cities; the word almost al

3.nounC2
Definition

a company whose business is flying passengers between cities; the word almost always appears as part of an airline's name, such as British Airways

Example

British Airways announced ten new routes from London to East Africa.

almost always in proper-noun company names, usually plural

Tanvi books her trips to Sydney with Qantas Airways every winter.

Common collocations
  • a national airway
  • fly with an airway
Synonyms
  • airline

    the standard everyday word; use this in conversation

  • air carrier

    formal industry term for any company that flies passengers or cargo

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 2 (a route in the sky): sense 3 names a business, not a path. In everyday English, learners should normally choose 'airline' instead — 'airway' in this meaning survives mostly in fixed company names.

Common Mistakes

I work for an airway in Singapore.
I work for an airline in Singapore.
outside fixed company names, airline is the natural choice.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words name parts of the system that moves air into the lungs, but each has a different scope and register. 'Airway' is the everyday medical term and covers the whole passage from the nose and mouth down to the lungs, including smaller branches inside; doctors and first-aid manuals use it constantly. 'Windpipe' is informal and names only the central tube running down the front of the neck. 'Trachea' is the technical Latin name for that same central tube. 'Respiratory tract' is the broadest and most clinical term, covering not just the airway but also the lungs themselves. In a learner's first aid class, you might be told to 'open the airway' — saying 'open the respiratory tract' would sound oddly textbook.

airway ↗windpipe ↗respiratory tracttrachea

Common collocations

Nouns

  • airway obstruction
  • airway management

Phrases

  • clear the airway
  • secure the airway
  • international airway

Prepositions

  • along an airway
  • on the airway
  • off the airway

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishModern English

A modern English compound of 'air' and 'way', first recorded around 1800. The earliest use described a ventilation passage in coal mines, where 'way' kept its old meaning of 'path or passage'. By the late nineteenth century, doctors borrowed the word for the body's breathing passage. The aviation senses — a route in the sky, and from there the airlines that fly such routes — appeared in the early twentieth century as flight became commercial.